Egypt

Ratings for the First Financial Sector Development Policy Loan Project for Egypt were as follows: outcome was satisfactory; risk to development outcome was moderate;... Show More + Bank performance was moderately satisfactory; and borrower performance was satisfactory. Ratings for the Second Financial Sector Development Policy Loan Project for Egypt were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory; risk to development outcome was moderate; Bank performance was moderately satisfactory; and borrower performance was satisfactory. Ratings for the Financial Sector Adjustment Policy Loan Project for Guatemala were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory; risk to development outcome was moderate; Bank performance was highly satisfactory; and borrower performance was satisfactory. Ratings for the Financial Sector Development Policy Loan Project for Morocco were as follows: outcome was satisfactory; risk to development outcome was negligible to low; Bank performance was satisfactory; and borrower performance was highly satisfactory. Ratings for the Banking Sector Restructuring, Privatization Project for Pakistan were as follows: outcome was satisfactory; risk to development outcome was negligible to low; Bank performance was satisfactory; and borrower performance was highly satisfactory. Ratings for the Banking Sector Development Policy Program Project for Pakistan were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory; risk to development outcome was negligible to low; Bank performance was moderately satisfactory; and borrower performance was satisfactory. Some lessons learned includes: financial sector reforms are relatively easy to design but difficult to implement. Successful implementation depends on two crucial factors: the commitment of the authorities to the reform program; and the effectiveness of project supervision. The Egyptian authorities have shown a strong commitment to the multi-year reform program that was designed by the reformist government that was appointed in 2004. The reform program did not include the privatization of the two largest commercial banks nor the large insurance companies. However, many measures were taken to improve the management of these institutions, which one commentator resembled to an effective 'privatization of management' rather than 'privatization of ownership'. A dogmatic approach to the ownership question would not be justified, especially after the public rescue of so many leading private banks and insurance companies in high-income countries during the 2008 global financial crisis. Policy based operations may require strong Bank technical assistance efforts as part of the process, particularly in the financial sector. Multi-trenched financial sector adjustment operations are effective instruments to support major financial sector reforms. Achievements under the operations three policy areas thus contributed substantially to the overall development outcome sought by the operation: strengthen the enabling legal and institutional environment for financial intermediation and risk management and to increase the role and participation of the private sector in the provision of financial services. The most relevant lesson of this project is perhaps the importance of the ownership of the reform program by the authorities and their strong commitment to its success. This is underscored by the second component of the operation concerning the restructuring of the ailing specialized public financial institutions. The key lesson from these two projects was the importance of the commitment of the authorities to the reform program, which was most evident prior to and during the project. Without this strong and effective commitment, such significant results could not have been achieved. Show Less -